Dev Patel cut crucial Monkey Man scene for ‘political’ reasons, apologised to Makarand Deshpande at the premiere

Actor Makarand Deshpande has revealed that an important scene featuring him in the action film Monkey Man was edited out. The news was broken to him by the film’s director-star Dev Patel ahead of its premiere in the US. Makarand said the scene in question, according to him, was the soul of the film, and represented its central “philosophy.” The controversial action film is still awaiting an Indian theatrical release.

Makarand said in an interview with Siddharth Kanan, “For the premiere of Monkey Man, I went to California. Before that, Dev Patel said he wants to have a word with me. He said, ‘That’s the scene I love the most, but we had to edit it for some reason… for some political (reason)… you understand’ and he just mumbled. I kept on looking at him and said, ‘Dev, wasn’t that scene the philosophy of your film?’ He was like, ‘Oh yes, man, but you will still like your role, I am sorry, but you will like it.'”

“When I saw the film, I said no problem. But I know that scene — wog ahar rehta toh kya maza aata. It had that punch, an edited scene won’t matter to the audience, but it matters to the actor. In my understanding, it was the rooh (soul) of the film, it may not be for Dev. It is getting a lot of critical acclaim, might in the Oscar race later and is like their Satya,” he added.

Monkey Man stars Dev Patel as Kid, who vows vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother. The film was earlier set to release on April 19 in India, but there is no release date in sight for the film as it awaits clearance from the CBFC, reportedly due to violence, sexual scenes and references to Hindu religion and mythology.

Now that the film has been pirated after it was available on VOD in the US, trade sources suggest it is unlikely that the film will see an Indian theatrical release.

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